Gold Prospecting Terminology - Alphabetical List

Here is a member compiled (alphabetically arranged) list of Gold Prospecting Terminology.

Alluvial gold - gold that had been transported by water either in a current or ancient river bed
Bedrock - the solid rock usually buried under soil gravel etc Often exposed on hills and some rivers
Classifying - screening your material through mesh to separate the fine and large rocks
Concentrates - the material that remains in the gold pan, sluice etc after being processed, this usually consists of black sand, gold and other small minerals
Crevicing - scraping with hand tools wire etc the fine dirt between the cracks in the bedrock to recover gold
Dredge - a suction hose and nozzle that sucks material from the creek bed to your sluice box
Dry blower - a sluice box with fine mesh on the bottom where air is blown through to stratify your material letting heavies drop out
Flour gold - fine gold dust smaller than grain of sand very flat and light
Grizzly bars - thin bars spaced approx 1/2" to preclassify material entering your highbanker
Highbanker - a sluice box on legs with water fed via a pump
Honey hole - an area which which contains a higher than average concentrate of alluvial gold or precious / semi-precious mineral
Hot rock - a rock with a high iron content which gives signal on your detector Often dark red/brown when cracked open
Loaming - the process of panning in a grid pattern surface dirt to locate the source of your gold
Mineralised ground - magnetic ground conditions caused by the presence of iron oxide particles in the soil
Mullock heap - the overburden pile around a mine shaft either alluvial or reef often contain small amounts of missed gold
Over burden - material on top of the gold bearing layer of dirt not carrying gold usually discarded
Pay Dirt - ground containing enough gold to be considered profitable for extraction
Pipe Clay - usually a whitish clay found in old river beds
Placer gold - same as alluvial gold a placer deposit usually refers to an ancient river bed
Puddling - mashing up gold bearing clay in water to release the gold
Raking - clearing raking the surface rocks leaves and sticks to allow you to rub your detector coil on the ground improving depth/sensitivity
Reef gold - gold still embedded in its host rock generally quartz but can also be greenstone ironstone etc
Riffles - bars/obstructions placed across your sluice tray to create differences in water flow pressure allowing gold to drop out
Riparian zone - the section of often vegetated ground between a river or stream and the land it runs through
Rock bar - a bar of bedrock running across a creek/river creating natural riffles
Sieving - similar to classifying, screening material through a mesh to separate the fine and large rocks while exposing sizable gemstones or gold
Sluice - a rectangular box containing either miners moss riffles matting or a combination of all where material is washed through with water
Snuffer bottle - a plastic bottle with a straw though the lid when squeezed and released the suction recovers your fine gold specks from your pan
Specie - a specimen of gold with quartz/ironstone etc
Specking - looking for nuggets on the surface usually done after rain
Spray bars - generally PVC pipe with holes drilled to spray water on your material entering the highbanker hopper
Stripping - see surfacing
Sunbaker - a nugget sitting on the surface retrieved without digging
Surfacing - a method commonly used by the Chinese of removing all the clay/dirt down to bedrock over a large area Still done now but with dozers
Tailings - waste material that has already been processed to recover the gold
Trommel - a rotating drum which tumbles your material with water aiding to breakup clay and faster classifying

Please feel free to add any terms that you feel should be included in the list.

Nugget.

Nugget, I like this idea. I hope I am not being too technical with some things I'd like to see on the list. I'll start at the top of your list.
Grizzly bars. there are several other types of grizzlys.
Riffles. You have added drop riffles already but there are several other types. Hungarian comes to mind but there are many others.
Classifying and classifiers. This list could get very extensive.
Sluice. again, so many kinds and so much confusion about whether or not it is a sluice or a hi-banker and then the new underflow styles.
Dredge. I have no experience with these so no comments.
Trommel. Some wonderful ideas for homemade on the net.
Spray bars.
Dry blower or dry washer.
Alluvial Gold. In North America we also have Elluvial and diluvial gold deposits.
Reef gold. I don't know what this is ?
Placer gold.
Tailings. We could add talus and scree.
Rock bar. Wish we had them in our streams around here but mostly sand bars.

Gold seperators. Gold wheel, Gold cube, Blue bowl, Miller table, Jigs and of course the many styles and colors of gold pans.

I don't know for sure if you use any of these in Oz and I know that there are other terms for things you use to hunt sapphires(spelling) down under. Now the juices are flowing and I look forward to seeing all of the suggestions here. Where's Wal when you need him ?
Thanx, Bill

Sounds like fun...do we go one word at a time...????.Loaming.

Thanks guys, just wanting to build up the list to start with then we'll get to the definitions

Mesh size seems to get a few people.... but I guess that may come under classifying?

How about " dolly" and "cradle", a mate thought I'd been to long out in the bush when I said I was taking a dolly and cradle out with me next time. Mick

Axeman- I'm going to try "dolly and cradle" on the management and see how that goes over. LOL
Bill

Hey Mick, lets play the "Banjo" :lol:
Brad

Crevicing, Snuffer bottle, Mullock Heap, Stripping, Flour gold, Sunbaker

Thanks guys, I'll get cracking on this once a have a bit of time spare.

Gold trap..

nugget, this is a great idea, especially for us newbys....and mostly me, so I know what steven is dribbling about...

Other words for you NUG. These had me searching the web when used in Goldspeak....

Surfacing
matrix
raking "still not sure it it just means to rake leaf litter from the ground or refers to some effective technique of making sure you cover all ground in a specific area.."
pipe clay is a good one
seeding... Not that its as prevalent these days

some photos and diagrams on some of these to explain them would be great. let me know if I can help out..

Is there anyone interested in having a go at putting together some definitions to the terms listed in my first post?

Please try and keep definitions relatively short (no more than a few sentences if possible), and remember these are to be written with newcomers in mind.

This will a fairly open process, so if anyone would like to jump in and suggest a minor alteration to a definition please do so.

Cheers,
Nugget

Grizzly bars - thin bars spaced approx 1/2" to preclassify material entering your highbanker
Riffles - bars/obstructions placed across your sluice tray to create differences in water flow pressure allowing gold to drop out.
Classifying- screening your material through mesh to separate the fine and large rocks
Sluice - a rectangular box containing either miners moss, riffles, matting or a combination of all where material is washed through with water.
Highbanker - a sluice box on legs with water fed via a pump
Dredge - a suction hose and nozzle that sucks material from the creek bed to your sluice box
Trommel - a rotating drum which tumbles your material with water, aiding to breakup clay and faster classifying
Spray bars - generally PVC pipe with holes drilled to spray water on your material entering the highbanker hopper
Dry blower - a sluice box with fine mesh on the bottom where air is blown through to stratify your material letting heavies drop out
Alluvial gold - gold that had been transported by water, either in a current or ancient river bed
Reef gold - gold still embedded in its host rock, generally quartz but can also be greenstone, ironstone etc
Placer gold - same as alluvial gold, a placer deposit usually reffers to an ancient river bed
Tailings - waste material that has already been processed to recover the gold
Rock bar - a bar of bedrock running across a creek/river creating natural riffles
Pipe Clay - usually a whitish clay found in old river beds
Loaming - the process of panning in a grid pattern surface dirt to locate the source of your gold
Bedrock - the solid rock usually buried under soil, gravel etc. Often exposed on hills and some rivers
Over burden - material on top of the gold bearing layer of dirt , not carrying gold, usually discarded
Hot rock - a rock with a high iron content which gives signal on your detector. Often dark red/brown when cracked open
Surfacing - a method commonly used by the Chinese of removing all the clay/dirt down to bedrock over a large area. Still done now but with dozers.
Raking - clearing raking the surface rocks, leaves and sticks to allow you to rub your detector coil on the ground improving depth/sensitivity
Crevicing - scraping with hand tools, wire etc the fine dirt between the cracks in the bedrock to recover gold
Snuffer bottle - a plastic bottle with a straw though the lid, when squeezed and released the suction recovers your fine gold specks from your pan.
Mullock heap - the overburden pile around a mine shaft either alluvial or reef, often contain small amounts of missed gold
Stripping - see surfacing
Flour gold - fine gold dust smaller than grain of sand, very flat and light
Sunbaker - a nugget sitting on the surface retrieved without digging
Specie - a specimen of gold with quartz/ironstone etc
Specking - looking for nuggets on the surface , usually done after rain

That was quick, great work mate.

Are these written in your own words or copied from elsewhere?

dang! Beat me to it diggerdude

Feel free to add to the list if you can think of any useful ones

Nugget said:

That was quick, great work mate.

Are these written in your own words or copied from elsewhere?

Click to expand...

Just wrote it mate, my own words.

DD

Fantastic work DD, it's greatly appreciated